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El Mercado de la Comunidad
email:  mercado @ nmaz.org
1918 W Van Buren St, Suite B-2
Phoenix, AZ  85009

Founder:  Pencie Culiver, 480-298-4374
Manager:  Becky Andrews, 719-330-8016
Assistant Manager:  Juan Cordero
 
Fire destroys our Donations Warehouse at 1am in the morning on June 15, 2010
News Reports:  Channel 3, Channel 12
Tuesday
10:43am		 The fire that destroyed our warehouse, June 15th, also destroyed almost a year collection of items for our thrift store, El Mercado de la Comunidad. The main purpose of our store is to provide items for our Neighborhood Ministries families to purchase with their “checks”. ...(credit earned for volunteering at our 8 acre campus) So we need to start collecting again!
Tuesday
11:47am		 Items needed are gently used or new furniture, beds and bedding, clothing, kitchen items, appliances and other household items. Also: warehouse shelving.
Tuesday
4:56pm		 List of Needs / Specific Items lost in the warehouse fire

Commercial plumbing services, commercial electrician services, communications services, commercial demolitians and clean up, donation of forklift services, pallet racking, warehouse shelving.

Commercial Evaporative Cooler 10,000 CSM

Sorting tables

50 tables, lots of chairs to go with tables

6 canopies

1 jumbo event tent

Riding Lawn mover

4 large flatbed dollies with big wheels

Hot dog / Tamale Cart and catering supplies

Tools and tool bench for repairing donations

Extra store fixtures

Clear plastic hangers

Large wheelbarrows

Large heavy duty extensions cords

Vacuum cleaners

Thrift Store: household large and small appliances, tv’s, dvds, vcr players, school supplies, washing machines, refridgerators, furniture, kitchen supplies, linens, bikes,

We may add to this list as we realize what else we have lost to the fire. Thanks for all of the care and compassion and prayers for us.
Wednesday
3:13pm		 FYI. The phone lines going to the thrift store (El Mercado de la Comunidad) and the t-shirt shop (OpportuniTees) were destroyed in the warehouse fire. Use the main office phone (602-252-5225) and email (office@nmaz.net) in the meantime. Thanks!
Wednesday
11:22pm		 Update from Kit after the fire

Hello Dearest Friends,

I wanted to thank you for your gracious responses to all of us here at Neighborhood Ministries once you heard about the fire that burned down one of our warehouses, used for the storing and sorting of donations for our thrift store, El Mercado de la Comunidad. Your kind words, offers of help and reminders of your prayers have been in every one of our conversations since the fire. They give us incredible encouragement. The good will of folks responding to this crisis covers all walks of life. We are humbled and carried.

You may have heard that though the fire was devastating, it didn’t burn down the building barely five feet from it, containing our Thrift Store and the adjacent business, Opportunitees, our silk screening business; this was the greatest celebration! With the fire blazing, all we could pray was, "Lord, please save that building". It was completely untouched. Our business building represents years of prayer and hard work. God protected it!

I wanted to give you a few brief updates. Donations are coming in to replace what we had been gathering for the last year. As you know, our store is the place where our "parent volunteers" who faithfully serve our Center shop. Keeping our store open for them is critical, particularly at this time of the year. Our parents work non-stop to keep our summer kids programs in operation. Also, we lost all our back-to-school uniforms and school supplies, our brand new Tamale cart, expensive tools that keep our center operating and other important items. We are letting the community know of this. They are asking for the lists of our needs.

In addition, we are getting another warehouse that we have on our property outfitted for these donations. This warehouse was set aside for an early childhood center, whose opening has been postponed until funding is available. Meanwhile, it will suit the needs of storage for now.

Pray with us for the many decisions we have to make regarding the clean-up and future plans. For ongoing updates regarding the needs we continue to have, please see our web page www.nmaz.net and our Facebook page: facebook.com/nmphx.

We are incredibly thankful for you.

Kit
 
  • We are taking donations NOW. Please bring your gently used items and see the progress of our new micro-enterprise!
  • Donations accepted Monday - Saturday, 9:00am - 4:00pm.
  • We need linens, small appliances, furniture, baby items, tools.
  • Need small groups to volunteer to sort, hang, price items at our site.

  • A new thought...if anyone has leftover giftcards, that they are not going to use, from any store, we would love to have them to purchase items for El Mercado.
     

We need folks to organize collections at their church, community, work place, etc. We have flyers for you to insert your information. Donation receipts.
 
Our parent volunteers are very excited about this store opening. Now they will be able to spend their "in house bucks", from working at NM, on a monthly basis instead of just 3 times a year at our stores.